Johannesburg - Robbers attacked a Muldersdrift smallholding twice at the weekend, seriously injuring one man, then shooting dead another man in front of his family. No arrests had been made.
There were at least four armed robberies in Muldersdrift at the weekend. The area has been hit by violent attacks in recent months.
“I was lucky,” said David Carter, 25, who survived being stabbed in the chest when four men broke into his bedroom at about 1.30am on Friday.
Carter co-operated, but they hit and pistol-whipped him.
“Then the one guy came and stabbed me in the chest with a steak knife from my kitchen,” he said.
The knife was partly deflected by his sternum, but still went deep into his chest.
He had 21 stitches and spent time in intensive care because of concerns over internal bleeding and damage. He has been discharged from hospital. Doctors told him he had missed death by millimetres.
Carter said there had been some work done on the property recently and extra workers were taken on. He believes one of those strangers was somehow linked to the attack, saying the gang had gone straight to his room and knew what they were looking for.
They took computers, a cellphone and a television.
On Saturday, there was another attack on another of the houses on the same smallholding.
A gang of three men held up Jacques Botha, his wife and small child when they returned home at about 8.30pm.
Warren Lurie, whose family own the smallholding and who lives on it in another house, said the family had offered no resistance, but the gang had shot Botha three times in the stomach, then stole an old computer and a handbag.
Botha was taken to hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.
Carter and Lurie believe the same gang was responsible for both attacks.
“They saw what they got away with and they reckoned they could maybe get away with more,” said Carter.
“I really believe they left me for dead, because the guy stabbed me pretty well in the chest.
“It wasn’t to wound me or to keep me quiet, it was to kill me.”
There were two other attacks nearby on Saturday night.
Clifford Sithole, of Ingwenya Country Escape, said one of his colleagues was held up by a gang of three when they arrived home. No injuries were reported.
Both Sithole and Lurie heard reports that a man walking along a Muldersdrift road was shot in a leg and robbed.
Provincial police spokeswoman Captain Pinky Tsinyane knew only of the attack on the Bothas.
Both Carter and Lurie said they were moving immediately.
“We’re definitely moving. This is definitely a wake-up call,” said Carter.
“It’s been too traumatic. We can’t live here like this. We packed up our house today, in one day,” said Lurie.
“These guys are brazen. They don’t care.”
The Star